I have been working on disentangling the profile of the Palatine emigrant Peter Knopp (~1711-1755), of Heidelberg Township, Berks County Pennsylvania, who married Sophia Catherine Gaendling. Peter Knopp is frequently conflated with another man with a similar name, that is, Peter Knabb (1725-1799) of Oley Township, Berks County. The Heidelberg Peter had a son—-also named Peter—who married Sybilla Boyer. Peter Jr and Sybilla/Sibila had a son Peter III, baptized 8 May 1785 at Host Church, Tulpehocken Township, Berks County. Heidelberg Peter III does not currently have a Wikitree profile, because the children linked to Peter II actually belong to a different Peter (from Oley Township); what a mess.
At FamilySearch I find two (transcribed) baptismal records for Peter and his wife Sybilla. Both name the same people, date, church name, and county—but one transcription says Heidelberg Township, and the other says Oley Township. The name of the church is Host. The church is quite famous, and I know it is located in Tulpehocken Township in Berks County, very close to the Heidelberg Knopp family homesteads. Best as I can determine, here is no Host church in Oley Township.
Ordinarily, I would assume that the incorrect assignment of a baptism record to the wrong township was an honest mistake made by whomever transcribed the record (or owing to changing township boundaries over time). But in this case the mistake appears to be more ominous—a case of reverse-engineering a “primary” source to fit an existing conflation. It seems as if somebody decided that the Heidelberg Knopps and Oley Knabbs were the same, and changed the township on a baptismal record to fit the conflation. I realize that any transcription is not really a primary source. I have not seen an image of the actual church record.
All of this got me wondering: are some of he “primary” sources at FamilySearch actually reverse-engineered from existing trees, which sometimes include conflations? The false primary source just reinforces the conflation as it propagates among various trees. Here are links to the two sources. The first is the correct location, the second is the incorrect location:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2VQ-3TL
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6CTR-VGYW
